Advice sought…

[Chiara’s slave]

Alas, I’ve only ever been a visitor to your shores. My last boat was in Berthon for quite a few years. That I often singlehanded, but it was a twin shaft AquaStar; pretty easy to manoeuvre.

I shudder at the thought of what a cat costs to moor in Berthon. Though somebody does, there's a huge one right opposite the ferry terminal

 

[doris]

No reason a 40 foot sailing yacht can’t be managed solo, both underway and in marinas. A bow thruster is preferable, but most modern boats will have these.
A remote control for the bow thruster (and anchor windlass), plus mid rope with loop on end (ideally with bit of hose threaded through to keep open) led to genoa winch and should be fine with a bit of practice.

Ha ha. Yes, I’ve got a bow thruster (never thought I would ever have one!) and yes I have a loop through some plastic tube which is marked up for the perfect length either for stern to or bows to.

 

[ylop]

Ha ha. Yes, I’ve got a bow thruster (never thought I would ever have one!) and yes I have a loop through some plastic tube which is marked up for the perfect length either for stern to or bows to.

Am I being dumb (highly likely) how do you know the perfect length - I assume you drop this over the outermost cleat on the pontoon finger, then use it as a spring to hold the boat in position until you sort all the other lines. But does the ideal length not depend on the pontoon length?

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Am I being dumb (highly likely) how do you know the perfect length - I assume you drop this over the outermost cleat on the pontoon finger, then use it as a spring to hold the boat in position until you sort all the other lines. But does the ideal length not depend on the pontoon length?

Just the home berth. Which is usually the one your moor up in most often

 

[Tranona]

I think he means for the home berth. I have the same. With my Bavaria (going in astern) the key first line was from the pontoon to the stern starboard, reached from behind the wheel with a boathook. attached, maybe leave engine in gear if wind blowing from forward. Walk on side deck to pick up mid spring, keeping bow under control with BT operated with the remote, then pick up bow line. Refinement with my GH is to have a pole on the finger near the midship cleat to hold the looped lines. spring is first to go on then the bow and stern, although the stern is narrow so have to get off the boat to pull the stern in. A remote for the BT is very useful.

 

[dunedin]

Just the home berth. Which is usually the one your moor up in most often

For the (winter) home berth we have a permanent mid rope on a raised pole at the end of the pontoon. Also stern breast rope and bow rope, all with loops on end.
For visitor berths, yes the le both required is unknown - hence bring back to genoa winch. Hook on then spin up slack on the winch.

 

[doris]

Am I being dumb (highly likely) how do you know the perfect length - I assume you drop this over the outermost cleat on the pontoon finger, then use it as a spring to hold the boat in position until you sort all the other lines. But does the ideal length not depend on the pontoon length?

As has been said, the right length for my home berth, which is a pretty standard length. I also have a stem wrap around fender () which has saved a few bob’s worth of gel coat over the years of solo/short handing.

 

[ylop]

Just the home berth. Which is usually the one your moor up in most often

Ah, good I thought I was missing a trick.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Ah, good I thought I was missing a trick.

We all have the odd senior moment

we unfortunately have difficulty with this trick, we cannot drive straight into our berth as we are between 2 boats on a long pontoon, only a metre clearance at each end. We face southeast too, meaning we are usually blown off. Frequently our mooring up looks like an undignified struggle. Actually if you’re planning it, it's not. Love to be able to just drop a breast line on a cleat, but it's just not possible. The other day, with a YM examiner friend on board even, we reversed up to the pontoon, put a stern line on, with the boat perpendicular, and winched the bow in. No boats or people were harmed. 20kn of cross wind, I just cannot get the bow in to the pontoon at a slow enough speed.

 

[ashtead]

One thought if looking for a home marina berth is ideally to have what is termed an open berth on a finger pontoon so as you come down the fairway the open berth side is around you -clearly if not you can back past the berth and then head up but more of a hassle. Secondly I always prefer home berths to be head to prevailing winds so for example if in Portsmouth have a berth where you point south west towards Cowes - so generally you enter head to wind so tend to be able to use wind as a break. Clearly a wide fairway helps as well as I have seen some back out and as they straight up hit their stern against the other parked boats . The only danger with wide fairway are those attempting 3 point turns in the fairway generally in a charter yacht . Some berths like Berthon are a dream generally for a visitor or bertholders but I guess prices are now well over £10k per annum there nowadays.

 

[westernman]

We all have the odd senior moment

we unfortunately have difficulty with this trick, we cannot drive straight into our berth as we are between 2 boats on a long pontoon, only a metre clearance at each end. We face southeast too, meaning we are usually blown off. Frequently our mooring up looks like an undignified struggle. Actually if you’re planning it, it's not. Love to be able to just drop a breast line on a cleat, but it's just not possible. The other day, with a YM examiner friend on board even, we reversed up to the pontoon, put a stern line on, with the boat perpendicular, and winched the bow in. No boats or people were harmed. 20kn of cross wind, I just cannot get the bow in to the pontoon at a slow enough speed.

I find what works well in those kinds of situations is to reverse up to the pontoon/quay and get a brest line attached to a bollard near or behind where you want to the stern to end up. Then motor forward against it, it will pull you side ways towards the quay. Reverse backwards to give some slack if you will end up too far fowards.
I find with that method I can easily parallel park with less than a metre to spare at each end without any physical effort at all. And no thruster.

 

[westernman]

One thought if looking for a home marina berth is ideally to have what is termed an open berth on a finger pontoon so as you come down the fairway the open berth side is around you -clearly if not you can back past the berth and then head up but more of a hassle. Secondly I always prefer home berths to be head to prevailing winds so for example if in Portsmouth have a berth where you point south west towards Cowes - so generally you enter head to wind so tend to be able to use wind as a break. Clearly a wide fairway helps as well as I have seen some back out and as they straight up hit their stern against the other parked boats . The only danger with wide fairway are those attempting 3 point turns in the fairway generally in a charter yacht . Some berths like Berthon are a dream generally for a visitor or bertholders but I guess prices are now well over £10k per annum there nowadays.

I much prefer stern to the prevailing wind. Then the bow won't quickly blow off.

 

[Tranona]

My berth is almost direct W/E so Thursday's SW was kind to me. come in from the south and turn mainly using the BT and reverse engaged then back in slowly using the BT to adjust bow if necessary and let the wind blow bow onto the finger. Hopefully stop rearward movement before hitting the pontoon. Walk onto side deck, pick up spring and attach to midships cleat. Rest really takes care of itself. Bit more tricky with easterlies and particularly any north in the wind.

 

[mrming]

We were pinned to a jetty by the wind yesterday morning, in between a survey catamaran and a yacht, with about 1m to spare at each end. With much chin stroking from us and the gentleman on the boat in front, we managed to spring off cleanly, getting the bow out enough for the current to take over. Luckily I knew when we’d be leaving and had left the bow pointing into the tide. A bow thruster would have made that manoeuvre much easier!

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I find what works well in those kinds of situations is to reverse up to the pontoon/quay and get a brest line attached to a bollard near or behind where you want to the stern to end up. Then motor forward against it, it will pull you side ways towards the quay. Reverse backwards to give some slack if you will end up too far fowards.
I find with that method I can easily parallel park with less than a metre to spare at each end without any physical effort at all. And no thruster.

I’ll give that a try. It should work in moderate winds, those where it’s nearly but not quite with a conventional approach. I daresay I’ll find out if there's an upper limit. Nothing lost if there is, just put the bow line on the winch again,

 

[westernman]

I’ll give that a try. It should work in moderate winds, those where it’s nearly but not quite with a conventional approach. I daresay I’ll find out if there's an upper limit. Nothing lost if there is, just put the bow line on the winch again,

I have done it against a gale. And it worked perfectly to slot into a space against a harbour wall barely longer than the boat.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I have done it against a gale. And it worked perfectly to slot into a space against a harbour wall barely longer than the boat.

But you have just the one bow to blow off, and probably more than 15hp

 

[westernman]

But you have just the one bow to blow off, and probably more than 15hp

Probably less hp per ton than you have. And more windage forward.

 

[benjenbav]

One thought if looking for a home marina berth is ideally to have what is termed an open berth on a finger pontoon so as you come down the fairway the open berth side is around you -clearly if not you can back past the berth and then head up but more of a hassle. Secondly I always prefer home berths to be head to prevailing winds so for example if in Portsmouth have a berth where you point south west towards Cowes - so generally you enter head to wind so tend to be able to use wind as a break. Clearly a wide fairway helps as well as I have seen some back out and as they straight up hit their stern against the other parked boats . The only danger with wide fairway are those attempting 3 point turns in the fairway generally in a charter yacht . Some berths like Berthon are a dream generally for a visitor or bertholders but I guess prices are now well over £10k per annum there nowadays.

The most upstream pontoon at Berthon, on the bend in the river, has an interesting current on the ebb.

 

[matt1]

Thanks. I also have a nagging worry about flush-fit, bonded hull windows in boats although the modern motorboat styling does feature much larger windows than tend to be seen in sailing boats and, perhaps, that magnifies the issue for the likes of Fairline?

I wouldn’t like to generalise about all makes, but for info (& balance) the hull windows on my Hanse are made by Lewmar and are bonded AND mechanically fixed with an inner metal flange that is through-bolted.

Having been a stalker of the Hanse’s owners forum for 5 years now, I’ve only seen 1 person mention a leak from a hull window which was quickly dealt with.